All posts by Gabriella Gordon

Hong Kong will allow retail investors to trade Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies after enticing the crypto leaders to set up firms and exchanges.

Hong Kong is leveraging the clampdown on crypto in many leading economies to gain more dominance. The city’s initiative for a crypto hub attracts global cryptocurrency exchanges.

Hong Kong pushes up its crypto hub plan by enabling retail trading of cryptocurrency

Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission is expected to announce the participation of retail investors in crypto on May 23, at a media conference. According to new agency rules, the authorities want retail investors to be able only trade top-tier cryptocurrencies.

Hong Kong adopts a progressive approach, introducing licenses and regulations for the crypto industry, while China, the U.S. and other countries restrict cryptocurrency. The city is planning to introduce a licensing system for virtual asset companies in May. Retail access will be available on June 1.

Lennix lai, CCO of OKX crypto exchange, said:

I expect that the outcome of the consultation will reflect the opinion of the digital-assets community, which is that compliant, safe and secure retail trading is an important aspect of a robust ecosystem of virtual assets.

In a paper of consultation published in February, a plan to allow retail investors to trade virtual assets licensed by SFC was announced. Investor protection is ensured by safeguards like knowledge tests, risk profile and reasonable exposure limits. Investors are also prohibited from trading crypto assets if they are not listed in two investible indices, both from reputable providers. One of these indexes must have experience in traditional finance.

Crypto Firms Move to Hong Kong

Hong Kong, despite the fact that crypto exchanges like OkX or Huobi are planning to apply for licenses, is leading the way in adoption.

HashKey’s OSL and BC Technology Group Co.’s OSL is the only licensed exchange in Hong Kong. HashKey Group intends to raise $100-200 million at a valuation of over $1 billion.

Ripple is now part of the eHKD Pilot Programme run by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). BitMEX announces BitMEX Hong Kong a dedicated service in compliance with Hong Kong Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Regime.

Wrapped BTC ( wBTC ) has been available on Ether since 2019 and is a concept that was not invented by cBTC. The tokens are wrapped before they enter the Ethereum ecosystem. This means that they are first blocked on the Bitcoin network, and then released to be used on the Ethereum network.

Other blockchains and crypto projects also offer similar-wrapped tokens for other cryptocurrencies. Wrapped Tokens serve as a bridge for two cryptocurrencies, but provide little extra functionality.

Wrapped BTC is the decentralized autonomous organization that holds all wrapped BTC. The DAO makes sure that wrapped BTC is maintained at a 1:1 ratio to BTC. The DAO is continuously evolving and decentralized.

Crypto community members criticize the project, despite its success. After all, Bitcoin, decentralized Finance ( DeFi ), and decentralized should not need third parties to handle digital assets and transactions. Cardano BTC is a good example of how it can be used.

Charles Hoskinson reacts to Cardano bitcoin: Successful first tests

The wrapped BTC DAO aims to eliminate the need for third-party custody.

DeFi fans are ecstatic about cBTC, which does not use a middleman. Smart contracts, as well as a vault or’safe’ are used to store and manage BTC.

AnetaBTC released a demo app for the app in April 15th. On March 5th, 2023 AnetaBTC launched the cBTC. Cardano users could transfer Bitcoin into their ADA wallets using the app.

Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, responded with a humorous meme.

Cardano users will be able to use the project, pending the successful completion of future tests, to access Bitcoin liquid. The cBTC Project has a lot of potential for the Cardano Ecosystem, given that Bitcoin’s current market cap is around half a billion dollars. BTC could be used by many decentralized applications and would benefit from its adoption.

But caution is advised. Token bridges, such as wrapped tokens, pose security risk.

AnetaBTC is committed to identifying and resolving security issues through the use of two independent auditors.

The project’s progress remains to be determined. It is a great opportunity to truly decentralize Cardano and DeFi.

Fidelity and BNY Mellon are joining the exchange giant in pursuing their own cryptocurrency custody platform.

According to reports, Nasdaq, an American stock market based in New York City is looking at Q2 2023 to release its custody services for Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.

Ira Auerbach, Senior Vice President and Head Nasdaq Digital Assets, stated that Nasdaq is ‘continuing to push forward to get all of the necessary technical infrastructures and regulatory approvals in order.

This report discusses an infrastructure that could look similar to Fidelity Digital Assets’ operation. The custody service would be the first step towards cryptocurrency and bitcoin trading on Nasdaq.

Bloomberg reports that Nasdaq applied to New York Department of Financial Services to obtain a limited-purpose trust charter. This would allow it to oversee the new business.

The launch comes just as many major cryptocurrency companies have fallen, amid increasing regulatory tension. The goal seems to be to offer customers without a platform, a well-regulated, trusted American service for bitcoin.

Many of the problems surrounding exchanges are caused by third-party risks. A custodian holds bitcoin for customers. You can interact with bitcoin most securely by self-custodying it with your wallet.

Trading platforms offer the convenience of custodianship but it is important to remember that these tradeoffs are not the same as traditional bitcoin self-custody.

Martin Lee, Nansen’s data journalist, said that the USDC (usd coin) on Binance has been steadily increasing this week. Lee posted Tuesday that it was “interesting to see USDC on Binance rise so much since the US Dollar news.” Lee also stated that Binance witnessed a $1.5 Billion increase in USDC over the past seven days.

He also stated that he expected the supply of tether ( USDT ) to rise on Binance more that USDC, ‘given you can’t trade with USDC’ on Binance. Binance removed USDC trading pairs and converted customer balances to USDC on Sept. 5, 2022. Wazirx, two weeks later, followed Binance’s lead, delisting USDC (USDC), and a few other stablecoins, to auto-convert balances into BUSD.

Bitcoin.com News reported on February 19, that nearly 3 billion USD had been removed from market. Today, this number has risen to 3.55 trillion since Paxos declared it would not continue minting BUSD.

The Paxos-managed stablecoin remains the third largest stablecoin in terms of market capitalization, until it falls below $5 billion DAI’s market value. BUSD, once a prominent crypto asset in the top ten by market capitalization is on the verge of being eliminated from this list.

The Nansen researcher also pointed out that Binance’s main bank account has $1.8 billion USDC today. This is the highest amount in the past 90 days. As of the writing time (ET), on February 21, 2023, there was $1.821 trillion USDC in Binance’s main wallet.

Nansen’s portfolio viewer does not look at ERC20-based balances. Binance holds just over 100,000,000 Tether ( ) in the same wallet. The Binance wallet also has 79.24million trueusd (TUSD), and 5.34million DAI.

SkyBridge Capital, a global investment firm, is betting that Bitcoin will reach $35,000 by 2023 due to a sustained recovery in the crypto market.

SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci admitted that this view was “overly bullish” but said that the recent crypto rally could gain momentum with the upcoming Bitcoin “halving”, which occurs every 4 years and reduces the number of bitcoins available by half.

‘If bitcoin could trade again to $35,000 SkyBridge would have an incredible year.’ Scaramucci reportedly stated to the Reuters Global Markets Forum, Davos, Switzerland.

The Bitcoin halving event has historically been followed by higher prices. This is because it slows down the supply of BTC to the market. Experts predict that the next Bitcoin halving will be in May 2024. However, it is impossible to know exactly when this will happen.

SkyBridge is one of the few investment companies that has invested in cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. SkyBridge plans to also invest in structured credit markets to generate 2023 returns, after its losses in 2022.

Scaramucci stated, “Structured Credit, Mortgage-backed Securities, Credit Card Debt, Auto Loans — that’s an attractive area again.” His firm had $2.2 billion in assets, with $800 million of digital asset-related investments.

Scaramucci also spoke to CNBC and called 2023 a “recovery year” for Bitcoin. He predicted that the cryptocurrency’s flagship currency would reach $50,000-100,000. He stated

“You’re taking on risk, but you also believe in [bitcoin] adoptive. If we do the adoption correctly, which I believe we will be, this could easily turn out to be a fifty-to-one hundred thousand dollar asset in the next two to 3 years.

Major cryptocurrencies broke through key resistance levels over the weekend and extended their rallies. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency in the world, has surpassed the $21,000 mark, while Ethereum is at $1,600. Over the last week, both coins have seen a 20% increase in value.

Although a variety of factors may have contributed to the recent crypto rally, the market gained momentum following new data from the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday that indicated a cooling in inflation.

The December annual inflation rate was 6.5%, down from 7.1% in November. Inflation decreased 0.1% month-over-month compared to 0.1% last month. Core CPI, which doesn’t take volatile food or energy prices into consideration, dropped to 5.7% in November from 6%.

As it puts pressure on US Federal Reserve to slow rate increases, lower inflation is often regarded as a bullish sign for crypto and risk assets such as crypto.